Spirit of the Hawk

PublishedAugust 8, 2016

(Rednex) – The Hawk – Battlesbridge

We’d visited the Flower Show at RHS Hyde Hall and headed over, for a change, to Battlesbridge and to The Hawk.

We’ve probably been into ‘The Hawk’ maybe half a dozen times over the years, but each time of visiting it seems to have been under different management. It’s been operated by various PubCo’s in recent years and while it’s never been worth writing home about, it’s been okay. These days it’s a ‘Country Inn’, one of Mitchell’s & Butlers seventeen different brands.

Outside The Hawk

It was a warm Saturday late afternoon and while the garden was busy there were still tables free, so we sat outside. There were a few diners inside, most in the ‘restaurant’ area. My understanding is that the menu is consistent throughout the pub, but while ‘bar’ and ‘garden’ diners are required to order from the bar, ‘restaurant’ diners meals are ordered through waiting staff.

Inside The Hawk

Inside is the seemingly mandatory ‘rustic chic’ décor, so beloved of pub chains, but tastefully done, not as distressed as, say, a ‘Vintage Inn’.

Inside The Hawk

There’s a reasonable range of draught beers and lagers but, to be honest, nothing to get excited about; this isn’t a drinkers’ pub.

The menu itself is comprehensive, including sharing dishes, sandwiches, steak, pizza, pasta and so on. Oh, and the now almost ubiquitous ‘Wagyu Beef’ burger.

I confess I was tempted by the Fish Finger Sandwich, but settled on a ‘Piccante’ pizza. Val ordered the crab, king prawn and chorizo linguine and I explicitly asked (and the barman taking the order noted on the bar terminal) for it to be prepared without chilli.

My pizza was wonderfully thin and crispy, one of the most authentic pizzas I’ve enjoyed in Blighty, while Val’s linguine was well prepared and tasty, but contained the aforementioned and unwanted chilli, so we might assume that either the sauce is pre-prepared or the chef can’t read!

Pizza Piccante

While that was an annoyance, the extracted chilli pieces further enhanced my Piccante pizza.

Seafood Linguine

Add a large glass of house white, a couple of pints of Amstel and the bill came to just under thirty five quid. Not bad for an ad-hoc and al fresco lunch on a warm summer’s day but, to be honest, not good enough to make us rush back.